


Shifters and Soulbonds

by Anonymous



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Idiots in Love, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 06:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3346355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Sid is a goose, Geno is a leopard, and both of them are clueless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shifters and Soulbonds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [james](https://archiveofourown.org/users/james/gifts).



> For the prompt: Shifters and soulbonds! Sid and Geno bond and now they can shift into one another’s forms as well as their own. Taylor thinks this is the least fair thing ever in the history of the world, because Geno’s form is AWESOME and her loser brother doesn’t deserve it.
> 
> ETA: *squeeing* I got [podficced!!!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5462882) I can't anon comment on it, everybody go tell Hananobira and Seascribe that they're amazing for me!

Sidney's shift form is a Canada goose. Of course.

Both of his parents are birds, which meant something avian was a given, and any bird shifter growing up in the Maritimes is almost certain to wind up as waterfowl, so it's hardly unusual. It's still incredibly annoying, especially the inevitable articles that get written every time he competes internationally.

He doesn't complain. People would still be calling him Captain Canada even if he was a platypus, and Nova Scotia has plenty of birds that would have led to so much more chirping: woodcocks. Loons. Boobies. _Bald eagles._

(One of his midget teammates was a beaver. Sid never complains about the goose.)

Taylor is a mute swan. She never managed to break any of Sid's limbs with her wings when they were kids, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Probably he shouldn't have teased her for being an invasive species.  
......

Evgeni is an Amur leopard. He is also insufferably smug about it. Being an apex predator is exactly as awesome as everyone always imagines.

His parents have no idea how he came to end up shifting into something that's native to the opposite end of the country. There's a healthy scattering of foxes and wolves through the family tree, the ubiquitous great-grandfather who was a bear, but no other big cats. His mama and papa are a badger and a reindeer. Denis is an ermine.

(Natalie Gonchar presented as a kitten while he lived with them, so small that it was impossible to identify any specific species or breed. Gonch let the PensTV crew come over with a laser pointer exactly once, then banned them all for life. And made them pay for the damages. It's still one of the most popular videos on the site.)  
......

They didn't bond at their first meeting, whatever people say. They don't live in a Disney movie. There's a shimmer of almost-familiarity across their nerves when they shake hands, both of them feel it, but people meet possible soulmates all the time. It takes time and effort to nurture that seed of potential into a true bond, and Sid and Geno aren't trying. They're just teammates, nothing more.

It doesn't really occur to them that going out to a bar with the team isn't that different than going out on a date with friends, that staying late to practice checking drills and faceoffs is probably more intimate than meeting somewhere for coffee. They train together, play together, shower together, eat together, and travel together. But they're just teammates.

No one has ever accused hockey players of having high levels of social intelligence.

Lots of couples report their bonds solidifying during their weddings. That overwhelming moment of shared joy that follows months and years of close association and courtship is more than enough to lock in a permanent link between two souls. As it turns out, so is a successful Cup run. 

Fortunately the idea of new bondmates immediately shifting into each other's forms is as much of a myth as bonding at first sight. As it is, Sid's fingers start tingling during his victory lap and he passes the Cup off just before he would have left clawmarks on the silver.  
......

They coast through the parade and other celebrations on luck and alcohol before going home for the summer to figure things out in amongst the rest of the celebrating. (The new shapes, not what it means for them to be bonded. See above for hockey players and relationship awareness.) Mastering the shift is just honing an instinctive ability into a practiced skill, it's a new take on what they already do professionally.

Sid ruins the steering wheel on his car and eight pairs of gloves but learns to keep the claws sheathed by the time the Cup comes out for his birthday. Taylor takes about a million blackmail photos of a blissed-out leopard sleeping curled inside its carrying case. The uncut video from Geno's Cup day includes a lengthy sequence of a goose trying and failing to fly while intoxicated.

They don't see each other face to face again until everyone comes back to town for training camp. All the guys are shouting and laughing around the locker room and Sid's already halfway into his pads by the time Geno finally rolls in- they make eye contact across the room and the bond flares into full strength...

Okay, it's a little bit like a Disney movie.


End file.
